Creating the Hudson River Consortium

In the wake of the recession, nonprofit organizations in the Capital Region of New York experienced unprecedented increases in demand for services (in both volume and intensity) while simultaneously struggling with steep declines in revenue.

A range of factors contributed to falling revenues, including low Medicaid rates; reductions or loss of State grant funding and contracts; delays in securing client benefit eligibility; and lower levels of charitable giving and philanthropic support.

To address these shared challenges, a group of organizations—Unity House of Troy, ClearView Center, Equinox, Mohawk Opportunities, Mental Health Association of Columbia-Greene Counties, Transitional Services Association, and Warren-Washington Association for Mental Health—developed a plan to collaborate on a regional approach to service delivery. These organizations provide a range of client-centered human services, such as mental health, substance use treatment, and social service, and collectively serve 20,000 clients in rural, suburban, and urban settings across a wide swath of upstate New York, including Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Saratoga, Warren, Washington, Columbia, and Greene counties. The seven agencies formed the Hudson River Consortium, which was later renamed Hudson River United Services.

In 2010, NYHealth awarded Unity House of Troy $250,551 to fund this regionwide collaboration.